Encouragement and Advise from a Fellow Caregiver

Caruth Haven Court

Post navigation

Straight from visiting Parson’s House Assisted Living Facility, I went to Caruth Haven Court and remember, at the time, I was thinking that Mom might be in assisted living for years. She hadn’t had the code episode yet.

Though I grew up in East Dallas and thought I knew the Central/Northwest Highway area by heart (after all that’s where Northpark is and I LOVE Northpark), I didn’t know about Caruth Haven Court. When I take Bodecker in that direction, I’m always on my way to Old Town, which means I jog to the right. To get to Caruth Haven Court, you stay on Bodecker.

After arriving, I had a chat with the marketing person in what they call the Family Room, which was also an example of one of their apartments. It was quite nice, but also quite small. I was interested in other choices. We took a look around. Everything outside the small apartments looked perfect, but I knew Mom’s vision of her assisted living space was bigger than what was available. There was one floor plan that I thought would work, but none were available. I thought another floor plan seemed adequate, but I doubted Mom would.

What I liked best was the dining room. They were having lunch as I strolled through and it was easy to imagine my mom in the space. Dining rooms had been the hardest part of assisted living for me to swallow. In some of the facilities they were just downright depressing, but this was open, airy and full of people who looked just like Mom. Sure there were wheel chairs and canes and oxygen tanks, but they seemed less overpowering at Caruth Haven Court than at other dining rooms.

I’m a very transparent shopper, so I told them exactly what I was thinking. I explained the reason I liked Parson’s House, as well as it’s geographic undesirability. I also mentioned the other two places I still had to see, but I admitted that all things considered, Caruth Haven Court was in the lead. They didn’t have my first choice of floor plan available and of the only other possible choice they just had one. I wasn’t ready to put down a deposit, but I did ask for first right of refusal.

Then we had the code episode. Hospice loomed on the horizon. On the recommendation of Mom’s doctor we moved to Walnut Place. He suggested keeping her there, even if we were able to get her well enough to go into assisted living, but Mom decided pretty quickly that Walnut Place was not what she wanted to call home. Don’t get me wrong, for rehab, Walnut Place was extraordinary and they were a true blessing when Mom moved to the nursing floor, but Mom had visions of a different kind of life for herself.

I became a virtual basket case. I was caught between the reality of Mom’s true condition and offering her the hope she needed to carry on. Her only chance was to believe that if she worked really, really hard at her rehab, I’d find her a lovely place to live out her life. I needed to return to Caruth Haven Court and think about what her life would be like if she were on hospice there. If you are already on hospice, then you can’t move there, but you can go on hospice after you get there. This time I took Bill with me. My judgement was clouded and erratic.

Bill could see Mom living there also and he loved their cookies. When you take a tour, they give you a big stack of remarkable chocolate chip cookies. I liked them, but Bill loved them. I’d donated the stack I got from my first visit to him and he was ecstatic when they gave us another stack for the tour we took together. But we couldn’t commit right then. There was one other facility within the geographic boundaries that might work and I wanted Bill to see them. Unfortunately, there was only one apartment available that fit our criteria. Even though he thought I was right, Caruth Haven Court was probably the right place, he didn’t want to put down a deposit. We just arranged to have the first right of refusal on that apartment.

The next morning I received a bouquet of flowers from Caruth Haven Court. Not some big arm-twisting arrangement, just a small thoughtful vase with a sweet card. It didn’t twist my arm, but it did touch my heart. I was having some difficult days.

Our visit to the other property was two days later and we’d barely begun when I got the call that someone else was considering “Mom’s” apartment at Caruth Haven Court. We finished our tour, but at the end we raced back to Caruth Haven Court and put down a deposit. I was euphoric when I returned to Walnut Place to share the news with Mom.

But she wasn’t feeling well. The nausea she’d been fighting all week was worse. We were on our way to hospice. By the beginning of the next week, I had to call Caruth Haven Court and tell them Mom wouldn’t be coming. Even if she made it through the crisis that made me call hospice, she’d never be well enough to enjoy Caruth Haven Court’s dining room the way I imagined she would.

One would think that this would be the end of my story, but it wasn’t, because when you choose Caruth Haven Court you become family. Even though Mom never made it there, they’d gotten to know me and through me, they were looking forward to having Ruth (and her extensive wardrobe) at their facility. The saleslady continued to call me and check on me in the coming days. She even dropped by one day to see me at Mom’s bedside. The deposit was returned to me with no fuss and no ado. That’s why I had to take time to tell you about Caruth Haven Court. If you have a loved one in the Dallas area that needs assisted living, you need to visit Caruth Haven Court. That’s where Ruth would have gone if things had gone the way she wanted it and that’s where you’ll be treated like family.

Post navigation

Jane Sadek

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

About Jane The Caregiver

Hi – Welcome to Chat@Caregiving.

Blogging has been a journey for me. I started blogging because someone in a seminar told me that all writers should – three times a week. I took their advice.

I discovered my travel posts were my biggest draw and for me, writing about caregiving was more of a burden than a joy. But as a caregiver, I know there are a lot of folks out there looking for advise and encouragement as they travel their own caregiving paths. So, I moved my caregiving posts over to this blog, rather than leave them lost among the planes, trains and automobiles.

If you're here, I hope your caregiving is going well and something I've posted here is of value to you. After my mom's life was over, I was at a loss for awhile. I'd been out of the career mode for several years and needed a running start to pick up speed. I tried a little of this and a little of that and after a few years found my niche. I'm Senior Writer and Volunteer Coordinator for Global heart Ministries. I blog for them at http://globalheartministries.wordpress.com. Go take a look. You'll love what they do.

Thanks for dropping by. If you’d like to read more about me or by me, go to http://janesadek.wordpress.com or http://faithtalking.wordpress.com/about/.